UCF: Reports of freshmen assigned to bathroom, closet false

Earlier this summer, reports spread nationwide that claimed UCF had mistakenly assigned two freshmen to live in a closet and a bathroom, respectively. These reports, however, are untrue, according to UCF officials.

Courtney Gilmartin, public information officer for the UCF Police Department, told the Central Florida Future that the students were never assigned to closets or bathrooms; they were assigned to "nonexistent rooms."

In fact, she said that with the computer program UCF Housing and Residence Life has in place, it isn't even possible for a student to be assigned to a closet or bathroom.

The students in question were set to live in Neptune, which opened about one year ago and is comprised of three buildings: buildings 156, 157 and 158.

"Neptune building 156 and Neptune building 158 were incorrectly programmed as the other in Housing's computer software," Gilmartin said. "Since the buildings are different sizes and have unique layouts, students were assigned to nonexistent rooms — rooms that existed in one building but not the other."

Student A, for example, was assigned to building 158 room 121 A. In the correct building — building 156 — this room is a staff apartment. But in building 158, this room does not exist. Similarly, student B was assigned to building 158 room 118 A. Again, in the correct building — building 156 — this room is a student suite, but doesn't exist in building 158.

As to why the freshmen believed they had been assigned to a bathroom or closet, Gilmartin was unsure. She did say she could see how "staff room" could be misheard as "bathroom" over the phone, which is how UCF contacted the students to address the error.

Nevertheless, the error was fixed promptly far before move-in time.

"Ultimately, nobody would have showed up without a place to live," Gilmartin said. "The error has been fixed and it won't happen again."